The proposed award for mentored research will be used to conduct three successive studies yielding empirical findings, intervention development and research experiences designed to prepare Dr. Ron Peters for a career of independent research in cancer prevention and smoking cessation for African-American youth. In Study I, we will identify determinants that influence intentions to stop smoking and utilization of programs to assist in smoking cessation among at-risk African-American high school students. This will be accomplished through a systematic literature review and focus groups with the selected population. In Study II we will conduct a cross-sectional quantitative research intervention to confirm the results found in Study I. Through this study we will gain an in-depth understanding of the cognitive responses that African American at-risk youth generate about messages urging them to participate in cessation programs and the formats and delivery systems that they prefer. In Study III we will qualitatively investigate the impact of alternative communication strategies and assistance formats to recruit African American youth to cessation services. In Study III we will utilize the results of studies I and II to determine whether the inclusion of attack on counter-arguments is more motivating to at risk African American youth than the exclusion of attack on counter-arguments, whether source (e.g., peer models) and message type jointly affect attitudes and intentions related to joining smoking cessation programs, how incentives might affect participation and which types of cessation assistance formats (e.g., peer counseling, telephone counseling, CD-ROM programs) are most attractive.